Is Obama’s deep bow (with slightly bent knee) to the Saudi king as bad as it seems? The White House, apparently forgetful that we live in the Internet age, where everything is swiftly documented and disseminated — or else thinking it leads a nation of the blind — insists the president did not bow. He supposedly always bends in half when shaking hands with shorter people, though he certainly seemed quite erect when saluting the British queen, who is much shorter than the Saudi king.

Obama bowed; this much is certainly not open to debate. All that is left now is to place his odious obeisance in context. As such, history has much to say about the seemingly innocuous bow.

Millennia before the current war between the West and Islam — the war Obama insists does not exist in the first place — the ancient Greeks (forebears of Western civilization) warred with the Persians (forebears of the soon-to-be-nuclear Islamic theocracy, Iran).

Writing in the 5th century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus explained: “When the Persians meet one another in the roads, you can see whether those who meet are of equal rank. For instead of greeting by words, they kiss each other on the mouth; but if one of them is inferior to the other, they kiss one another on the cheeks.”

This explanation reminds one of Bush’s hand-holding/kissing sessions with the same Saudi monarch, which some insist exonerate Obama’s bow. Not so; as the Greek historian explains above, such behavior is representative of equal rank in Eastern cultures.

As for Obama’s conduct, Herodotus continues, “yet if one is of much less noble rank than the other, he falls down before him and worships him.”

As for “falls down before him and worships,” this phrase is a translation of the Greek word proskunesis, which means “to make obeisance,” to “worship, adore,” as one would a god, or king, or god-king. Basically, to fall on one’s face in prostration to another. Connotatively, it implies “to make like a dog” — base, servile, and submissive.

While common to the caste-like system of Persia, prostration was something the freedom-loving Greeks scorned. Indeed, wars were waged simply because the Greeks refused to submit — literally and figuratively — to Persian tyranny.

According to Arrian’s chronicle, at the height of Alexander the Great’s power — when his hubris against the gods and megalomania against man were most burgeoning — he decided to implement the proskunesis in his court, provoking controversy among the Macedonians, until one of their numbers, Callisthenes, rebuked him by saying, “Will you actually compel the Greeks as well, the freest of mankind, to do you obeisance?” Another close companion to Alexander, Clitus, vexed at the former’s increasing pomposity and the lack of manly dignity at his court, told Alexander, in the words of the historian Plutarch, that “he [Alexander] had better live and converse with barbarians and slaves who would not scruple to bow the knee to his Persian girdle.” His words cost him his life.

It was one decade ago, when I studied ancient history with Victor Davis Hanson, that I last examined the proskunesis (never thinking the day was nigh when it would have modern applicability — and thanks to a U.S. president!). Recently corresponding with VDH about this whole sordid affair, he confirmed that “the Macedonians seemed to really have felt proskunesis was about the worst thing someone could do.”

In light of the West’s ancestors’ utter contempt for proskunesis, let us now examine Obama’s prostration in context:

First, it must be affirmed that, as with ancient Greeks, Americans find bows, prostrations, and other servile gestures distasteful. Interestingly, the Muslim world shares this same view, particularly so-called “radicals,” who are constantly condemning “manmade” governments, such as democracies, as systems of “human-worship” to be eschewed at all cost. Writes Ayman al-Zawahiri: “Know that democracy, that is, ‘rule of the people,’ is a new religion that deifies the masses by giving them the right to legislate without being shackled down to any other authority” (The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 130).

This, by the way, is why the Saudi monarch does not tamper with Sharia: doing so would be tantamount to self-apotheosis. Expecting prostrations from others would be viewed little better by the theocrats surrounding him. (Watch the video and note that, while the king proceeded with an extended right arm, Obama dived in with a bow, almost taking the former aback.)

In short, both Muslims and Americans (at least until very recently for the latter) find bowing to be an odious enterprise and therefore do not offer it to, nor expect it from, others.

Conversely, some Far Eastern cultures incorporate the bow. Had Obama been in Japan and bowed (and received a reciprocal bow signifying equality), his actions would have been culturally appropriate (not to mention expected). Yet, Obama had as much reason to bow to a Muslim as he would have to a Christian or Jew.

Yet surely he didn’t bow to Abdullah due to the latter’s exalted status in the Muslim world (“Guardian of the Two Sanctities”), but rather out of politeness, because Abdullah is a king, royalty. Not so. Were this true, upon meeting the British queen — equal “royalty” — Obama would have stooped to her as well. (Nor can his iPod gift be considered surrogate.)

Whatever prompted that rather instinctive bow — Obama may be used to bending the knee to Saudi royalty, considering that Saudis may have paid his college tuition — and regardless of antiquated notions of “honor” and “dignity,” merely diplomatically, it was a bad move.

Not only is the Wahhabi king a symbol of the most “radical” form of Islam — it’s not for nothing that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers, not to mention bin Laden, were Saudis — but his Sharia-enforcing kingdom is cited as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Bowing to this man was therefore symbolically a bow of submission to radical Islam and all its attendant human rights violations.

This is compounded by the fact that, immediately preceding this ignoble bow, Obama was busy profusely apologizing to the Islamic world, insisting that the U.S. is not at war with Islam — and “never will be.” Jihadis the world over must have been relieved to know that not only does the leader of the most powerful Western nation have no intention of naming them or placing them in context — so much for that first strategy of warfare, “know your enemy” — but that nothing they do in the future will ever cause the sleeping infidel giant’s leader to arouse it.

Similarly, Obama’s obeisance should give nuke-seeking Iran even more hope in its endeavors. After all, if the leader of the free West so readily bends the knee to Wahhabi despotism, how long before he bows to Iran, the true heir of proskunesis-Persia? And if he does not fully bow willingly, that is only more incentive for Iran to hasten and acquire nukes, so he can be made to bow unwillingly.

Finally, any would-be “moderates” or assertive governments who may have been serious about combating radical Islam and its attendant humanitarian abuses via Sharia have, through Obama’s bow to the personification of radical Islam, just received a clear message: aside from occasional, perfunctory lip service, you’re really on your own.

As for all those who would defend Obama’s bow by saying he was being “diplomatic,” because, you know, we “need” Saudi oil, how does that justify bowing, unprecedented from an American president, unexpected from the Saudi king?

When Alexander the Great, drunk with hubris, took on despotic ways, demanding that others prostrate themselves before him, the Macedonians revolted; some were put to death. What a long way Western civilization has come when today the leader of the free world and heir to democratic ancient Greece, far from despotically demanding that others offer him obeisance, voluntarily opts to prostrate himself — and in essence, all of America — before another. And what another.

Raymond Ibrahim, a Middle East and Islam specialist, is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) andThe Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings have appeared in a variety of media, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, World Almanac of Islamism, and Chronicle of Higher Education; he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Blaze TV, and CBN. Ibrahim regularly speaks publicly, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and testifies before Congress. He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center; Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow, Middle East Forum; and a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution, 2013. Ibrahim’s dual-background -- born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East -- has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former.

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1.
Delia

This was beyond a ‘faux pas’, this was an instinctual reaction from one Muslim to another.

There was no equality in that exchange whatsoever. It was clearly an embarrassing subservient gesture.

Bush holding hands with a Saudi was on ‘equal’ terms and equal respect.

This ‘bow’ was pathetic and verging on slavish.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

I would like to apologize to the world on behalf of the people who didn’t vote for the @sshat we have in office [since zero loves apologizing for America I figured I'd throw my own apology in for good measure].

I cannot be absolutely sure that Barack Obama bowed to the Saudi king. However, I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. The video clip does not show him to be tripping over his own feet. The only logical explanation is that Obama is indeed bowing. I am a very fair man. Can somebody offer another realistic alternative?

President Obama is a poorly read and shallow man. After all, this is the same man who recently talked about the Austrian language and once said there are 56 American states. The present occupier of the White House is way over his head. He is not close to being ready for prime time.

Delia – I agree that the bow seemed instinctual. It has been bad enough to hear this man (straw/hollow/sham) berate this country as badly, if not worse than, some of our enemies, but now bow to one of them? I guess when he took the oath of office, everyone assumed that he would know who our “enemies, foreign and domestic” are. Maybe someone should have spelled it out for him, and for his wife – the “real” ruler of the free world, both of who hate this country.

It is impossible and simply ludicrous to believe that Obama did not know what bowing means in Arab/Muslim culture Therefore, one must realistically extrapolate his intentions in breaching said protocol.

Firstly, he was demonstrating-through bended knee-his personal allegiance to the Muslim world-protocol be damned. Secondly, he was signaling the new direction he intends to take the US towards.

In other words, if one puts together Obama’s initial outreaches as President-to the Muslim world ! – then one must come to the obvious conclusion. Obama not only will ignore US protocol when it relates to the Muslim world,but he has EVERY intention of weakening the US in the process.

The first phase of this purposeful weakening came on bended knee.The second phase will come in his groveling before the Iranian mullahs. His actions will make Carter’s prostrating appear courageous in comparison. Obama’s opening shots are just a downpayment on future, ill boding ‘changes’.

Obama has brought the US to its knees without a shot being fired by her enemies. Through prostrating behavior, and through speeches laced with blame America for the world’s ills, Obama has done more harm to our nation than terrorists dare dream of. For IF the leader of the free world is ready, willing and able to give up its top billing, why should anyone bother to fear her, or respect her? Further, why in the world should any sane nation align with her?
Why indeed!

Modern Liberals are unable to discern differences in situations unless there is an opportunity to elevate what is wrong and tear down what is right – so everything is “equal”. This is why terrorists are deemed victims by Modern Liberals.
Not to get to far off track anthor interesting view into the pathetic liberal mindset is the American hostage situation and the criminal Somali pirates who captured him. I hear liberals everywhere talking about the need to help the poor Somali citizens rebuild there war ravaged country as a way to reduce crime. What the F–K has that got to do with dealing with piracy. In the warped liberal mindset pirates are victims. An excellent short video on the subject.

In my early thirties, I visited Ireland, home of my ancestors. In America many of us refer to ourselves as Irish-Americans or German-Americans, etc. to honor our cultural heritage. While on my trip I realized, proudly, that I am not an Irishman. I am an American. As an American, I am disgusted my the actions of the current resident of the White House. Conservative, libertarians and independents have written and read much about Zero’s shortcomings, most of which are undeniable. In my own mind, his act of obeisance to a foreign monarch is completely unacceptable. We bow to no one.

His shallowness is made worse by his assumption that he knows better than everyone else. He sees himself as the master of understanding people and therefore has no need to seek advice from protocol experts. Living in Indonesian at age 10 gives him complete insight into the Islamic world. Hearing his father’s tales about the Mau Mau uprising taught him everything he needs to know about British history and the problems of Africa. He uses very thin ties to establish his credibility, but these won’t bear the weight of real conflicts with people who aren’t known to swoon at hearing his voice. He has sensed a few areas where his “expertise” is limited, which is why he went to Gates and Petraeus on Iraq and Afgghanistan. But I fear that he will only stick with them until he thinks he has mastered the buzzwords or until they make a proposal that will cost him popularity. He is way over his head, but he will be the last to know it. And many people will pay for his ignorance and hubris.

He bowed and instead of admitting that he did and shouldn’t have he and his spin machine are now LYING about it. Pathetic. Yet more proof that a Presidential set doesn’t exist. To be honest, I’m more pissed about the lying than the bow.

His father was Muslim, his stepfather was Muslim, he lived in Malaysia, a Muslim country, for years where he went to a Muslim school where he studied the Koran. Then he joined an ostensibly Christian church with strong connections to Louis Farrakhan, who leads the “Nation of Islam”. He said nothing is more beautiful than the Muslim call to prayer. No proof has ever surfaced that he converted to Christianity.

In bowing to the leader of the most fanatical wing of Islam, who has spent many billions of dollars (of our money) to export his extremism to every corner of the planet, including the US, Obama was just doing what comes naturally in his faith.

When I first saw the clip, I thought the notion that Obama would bow to the Saudi king was so outlandish that for sure there must be some other explanation. Maybe his trouser leg rode up and he bent over to straighten it when he realized the king was already extending his hand. So he stopped right in the middle of bending down and awkwardly extended his hand. The whole thing is done pretty gauchely and Obama is usually a graceful man.

I am more angered President Obama has DENIED he bowed to the Saudi king in the first place when the pictures & the film is everywhere. Once more Obama’s arrogance, ignorance & incompetence make rears its head.

President Obama believes most people in the United States are dumb as a pile of bricks. This will be his undoing underestimating the American people….

The “bow-denial” on the part of the White House is alarming. To be so blatant and dishonest, they must think (in the spirit of the Big Lie) that their spin machine is pretty solid.

Or it may be worse than that, perhaps Team Obowma thinks we do not care about the truth or hope we will trust their words more than our eyes. There is a limit, people get tired of being played for a fool.

That didn’t look like much of a bow to me. Seems like you are making a very big deal of a very small gesture that may or may not have been intended. Looked more like he was stooping to reach his hands out to Abdullah. Is there nothing important on the agenda for today?

It must have been a hell of a bribe from the Saudis to the American president to have that humilating photo-op! Oh where oh where does the money trail go, to who, to who does it succeed, with his ears cut long and his bow cut low, oh what, oh what can this mean?

…thinks we do not care about the truth or hope we will trust their words more than our eyes.

Isn’t that the spirit of the Big Lie, repeat something so many times (and/or make pretentious “official” claims) that it seats itself inside the public consciousness as Truth ?

Anyway, Barack’s advisors seem like a pretty clueless group. Had they been less clueless (and classless), they might have warned him that “Austrian”* isn’t a language.

*This from the guy who (before becoming Prezzydent) chastised we poor sap Americans (we clingers to guns & religion) that we should speak a foreign language. (never mind that The Apologist in Chief doesn’t speak one himself)

yes, there is something more important on the agenda today. a few minutes ago pirates captured 16 more american hostages while the pile sits there thinking what to say instead of doing. anything. and, iran, our new friend says “iran, is in control of their nuclear cycle”.thanks for decimating the united states of america and keep on bowing.

Why give the boy Precedent the benefit of the doubt by describing his act as a “seemingly innocuous bow”? Really. Why?

Every American with a modicum of common sense and awareness of current events immediately cringed and knew that this was one more evidence of his foolishness and ignorance where matters of state are concerned.

And his SOS was no better, as she giggled her way manically through her initial statement (in the presence of the Moroccans yet) regarding the piracy against the American ship.

If even “conservative” journalists can’t refrain from giving these yahoos 2-3 weeks to explain/spin/obfuscate, this will delay the urgent business of pulling America back from the brink. We still have our Constitution freely available in print and the majority of our Congress is still willing to at least pretend they will support and defend it, I suspect, if it is put to them verbally and bluntly. But there’s not a lot of time to waste.

“Seemingly innocuous”, my foot. That is one phrase I would never apply to this behavior.

“It is impossible and simply ludicrous to believe that Obama did not know what bowing means in Arab/Muslim culture Therefore, one must realistically extrapolate his intentions in breaching said protocol.”

I find it perfectly logical to believe that he didn’t know any better. This man has zero foreign policy experience, nor has he surrounded himself with many impressive people who do. Perhaps if he had managed to spend a full term in the Senate before chasing down the Presidency, and therefore spent more time on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he might have picked up some useful facts, such as how you do not bow to a Middle Easterner unless you wish to be seen as weak.

Based on his gifts to the Brits (which strike me more as the gifts a long-absent relative would get for the niece or nephew he rarely sees), my guess is that he is either woefully unprepared for foreign diplomacy or just doesn’t give a rat’s rear end. Like another arrogant Democrat president before him, LBJ, he has his own ideas on how to address leaders of foreign nations, protocol and cultural issues be damned.

Heck with his birth certificate, I want to see his baptismal certificate.

David S (28). Yes it is a big deal. The White House has a protocol office that does nothing but figure out the appropriate behavior for situations. At this level – national leadership – a wise politician leaves nothing to chance. Subtle meanings are inherent in every move, every word, every action. Do you think that President Bush “held hands” with the king by accident? To the contrary, I rather imagine that he knew precisely what actions to take to present a specific meaning (a meeting of equals) in the context of his guest’s culture, and his own.

Barack’s hubris lies in his belief that actions and words have only the meanings that he assigns to them.

Mr. Ibrahim, while there may be no tradition of bowing to a king in Islam, isn’t this a proper attitude for a dhimmi, to expose the back of his neck to the ritual smack (or worse) as the jizya and submission are offered?
That’s where I think the “he’s a closet muslim” crowd is wrong — he’s a dhimmi, much like Syrian and Alexandrian patriarchs were, offering submission and riches to the Caliph in exchange for protection from jihad and for some personal political power.

Anyone who read any American History and put it in context, and then read the U. S. Constution’s directive to renounce any allegience to any foreign king or potentate, and forbade Americans, a new breed, from accepting any hereditary, fuedalistic or honorific titles of the type that European Royalty was so fond of, would know that in founding our Republic we renounce all foreign hereditary kings. The Saudi King is precisely that, a hereditary king whose grandfather was riding camels across a Lawrence of Arabia landscape when Teddy Roosevelt was sending the White Fleet around the Globe in preparation for building the Panama Canal. I don’t get Obama’s ignorance of the greatness of his country in relation to desert dwelling Bedouins. Apparently he has no qualms about compelling a growing segment of his electorate to be pushed to the belief that he is, despite all denials, really a closet Muslim. Sad.

“Barack’s hubris lies in his belief that actions and words have only the meanings that he assigns to them.”

Well put, and typical of a person of his privileged, elitist political career and someone in love with their own voice. He’s not only a snob, he’s the worst type of snob…one that’s bought into the ridiculous adoration the MSM has lavished on him.

We have elected a man who has most likely never known real humility. He has never had to deal with failure because his career is consistent with someone who fails upward, and has only held jobs where risk is either non-existent or easily passed on. He is a dangerous combination of naivete, arrogance, and self-centeredness.

That didn’t look like much of a bow to me. Seems like you are making a very big deal of a very small gesture that may or may not have been intended. Looked more like he was stooping to reach his hands out to Abdullah. Is there nothing important on the agenda for today?

Peace.

DS

Apr 11, 2009 – 7:49 am
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Your intelligence is on the same level as an oil pan dipstick (my apologies to the oil pan)! And, you’re either a lying apologist, or you need to get your eyes checked! “Didn’t look like much of a bow to me”… Yea, ok!

There is only one whom all human beings should bow before: the Lord God Creator of the Universe and Father of Jesus. And I suspect, given the extraordinary modesty that Jesus displayed towards human beings that God is not so egotistical as to affect an attitude towards us as Alexander did towards his fellow Greeks and subject peoples. Therefore, our bow before the throne of Christ is one of immense gratitude that we should have a King unsurpassed in mercy, generosity, and compassion.

Obama’s instinctual obeisance before a human being is disgusting and decadent. He is theologically illiterate, as well as profoundly ignorant of history and a range of other disciplines. For our CIC to behave this way disgraces our nation and our heritage.

I will rejoice in January of 2013 when he exits the world stage, even though he leaves wreckage behind in his wake.

This disgusting sack of dung we have for a President should be impeached, tarred and feathered on the White House lawn and sent packing at gun point to his sycophant leeches in Chicago. It is infuriating beyond description for the President of the United States to submit with a waist level bow to an Islamic king. Calling his own country arrogant while on foreign soil was bad enough but this steps way over the line. Impeach this bastard.

“I will rejoice in January of 2013 when he exits the world stage, even though he leaves wreckage behind in his wake.”

I hate to sound like a schoolmarm, but ACORN is – as we write – being funded up the wazoo in order to bend your American electoral system Obama’s way. That means, 2010 and 2012. So: get involved with any Tea Party in your area (I can’t, I’m Canadian); become really active in any and all local 2010 elections; and gird your loins. 2012 will make or break the USA. Sharia anyone?

It’s this simple folks, conservatives believe their own eyes, liberal lemmings believe what they are told they saw. The chasm is wide. Shame on me I guess but I hope to God, that S.O.B., his corrupt Party and his lemmings fall head first into it.

How can anyone deny what everyone can see? It was a bow. If it was instinctive, that makes it worse because it shows that our President considers himself inferior to a Bedouin tribal leader. I’m going to be optimistic and consider it to be yet another demonstration of an arrogant man ignorant of proper protocol. Maybe he just does not realize that for the President of the United States to offer obeisance to another ruler is disgraceful.

“Well I think kissing and hugging and holding hands with another man,,,,,,by a guy who is straight,,,,,,,is worst.”
~

NO. Bush and the Saudi King holding hands and even kissing on the cheek was a sign of mutual and EQUAL respect of two leaders from different countries which is common by their Saudi customs.

0Bama bowed like a slave to his master and the King did NOT bow back in kind but looked slightly surprised for such a gesture. This was not only a breach of protocol but a sign [to Muslims] of subservience to Islam itself.

The teensy, tiny little Queen of England [our ally] received and RECIPROCATED an appropriate nod of respect.

Put two and two together and later you can tell me it equals 57 states of Islam.

The President bowed. There can be little mistake. America rejected monarchy and all its trappings, confirmed by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. We take pride in the fact that any citizen may become President of the United States. Heredity is not a prerequisite of office. The bow by the President suggests subservience to a hereditary foreign monarch who holds all the trappings of power in a state where individual citizens have no personal rights at all. All this is a matter of repugnance to Americans and yet the President bowed.

Well I think kissing and hugging and holding hands with another man,,,,,,by a guy who is straight,,,,,,,is worst. Didn’t bush do that.

Apr 11, 2009 – 12:44 pm
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“,,,is worst”? Actually Marge, holding hands is quite common, and acceptable in the male oriented middle eastern Arab culture! A non muslim bowing to an Arab dictator, er, leader represents weakness in their feeble minds. Also, the Bush administration never tried to deny the obvious. The Obama administration looks foolish trying to defend the indefensible! Not following protocol as a result of naivet’e is one thing. Flat out lying about it sets a comical precedent, resulting in the teleprompter king being turned into the kings jester, and the rest of the world scratching it’s collective head, and asking… WTF?

Obama is a Muslim, first, last, and always. There are too many evidences of this, and the latest was his bow to a Muslim leader. The idea that his bow was anything other than a true indication of his belief system is done away with by viewing that bow and then viewing the bow to the Queen of England. Anyone who thinks otherwise is unable to understand what is going on right before our eyes, and Obama knows that with the MSM in his pocket he can get away with anything and everything.

As an Australian hearing/seeing of your President denigrating America for the Worlds ills and then topping it off by bowing to a foreigner I couldn’t help feeling somewhat lost and alone. America is ‘our’ ally and I hope will always be, but if your President bows to a despot what hope does the free world have.

The amount of blood shed in freeing the World of tyrants so we could live in peace is staggering to say the least, every soldier that dies today or in the past has had their grave trampled on by Mr Obama, pretty sad actually.

When your President should be laying down the law and standing his ground not scraping like a dog to despots I can hardly hope to think that you guys are in for a whole lot more. Sincerely my prayers go out to your Country. I do hope Mr Obama is replaced soon before he does anymore damage.

Terry Gain wrote:
“He does prime time just fine. The problem is he’s unfit…”

This is a very good observation that I have not heard elsewhere and deserves to be circulated more.

During the election people like Bill Cunningham said that if you campaign well, then you are qualified as a candidate. Terry is saying that a person can be so schooled that he does prime time great but that he is still an unfit executive. I really like Terry’s formulation.

It’s weird, but Obama’s awkward bow reminds me of his stupid Special Olympics comment on Jay Leno. It’s like he gets nervous and then does something pathetic. Like the special olympics incident, my immediate reaction is to feel embarrassed for him.

But why did he bow when he got nervous? To me this is the ultimate example of the leftist soft bigotry. In a way he worships the ‘other’, because above all things, the king of leftists wants to be able to claim he has a special relationship and special understanding of the ‘other’ culture. He will trade everything else for the sake of being able to claim superior cultural awareness. Even if it means he is bowing to a foreign leader who happens to have little respect for the people he rules. This is foreign policy 101 according to Obama.

Delia is always the first post, and currently the most prolific poster, but I remember her first post having to do something with crazy hatred of minorities. Someone in PJM needs to check this out. It’s a paid employee.

The only reason I can think of why someone so obviously unqualified to be president was elected is that the electorate is immature. In a country where maturity comes early, like Israel, an Obama would be laughed off the stage.

And, didn’t Barack Obama kiss and hug French President Nicholas Sarkozy? And yet he visibly backed away from Carla Bruni Sarkozy and then shook her hand, another thing that makes me go hmm.

~~~~~~~~

He also completely bypassed the President of Argentina. He approached someone behind her, his hand out the entire time – from the video, it initially looks like he’s approaching her. President Kirchner extended her hand and he totally bypassed her, greeted the other male, then returned to his place, ignoring her. to bypass an extended hand is considered very rude. but, he’s a total oaf at protocol.

Going beyond the clear lunacy of the submissive bow by OUR president to foreign royalty, the Whitehouse’s position on lying about it should scare & alarm Americans.

If they are so willing to blatantly lie and spin this when there is video & photographic evidence at the egregious broach in protocol, what else are they lying to the American people (and the world) about?

#74, Many of the young adults in their 20′s now were born when Reagan was in his second term; therefore, they have never lived in the vapid wasteland of the Carter Years with the Misery Index & Stagflation. Ironically, the young voters were hoodwinked by a slick snake oil salesman in Barack Obama. Now, they will experience Stagflation & the Misery Index with President Obama.

No matter what the America hater does there are huge constituencies who will stick with him: blacks, hispanics, single females and unwed mothers of every race. What does this mean? It means that we may be very close to the point at which America will only be taken back by armed rebellion.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Given the astounding lack of competence and outright venality of the current viper’s nest, I can easily see that 53% to 47% margin melting away and Obonga being a one-term president. Providing the Republicans put up a true conservative.

I turned 21 in 1976 and that election was the first I was eligible to vote in. Like most twenty-somethings in the Seventies, I voted for Carter. I got out of the Army in 1976 and in 1977 I started college on the GI Bill. The Seventies were a very Leftist decade, and I got into socialism big time on campus. But it was more of an academic journey for me, and I did not break with Marxism until 1987. Anyway, in the Fall of 1980 at the University of New Hampshire, my alma mater, the vast majority of my classmates (I was an economics major who laughed at the Laffer Curve)voted for Reagan, not Carter. The Seventies were a very bad time for most of us. Trying to find jobs – even part-time jobs during the school year and full-time jobs in the summers – was very hard. Inflation was up. The economy was stagnant and we were coping with an almost steady drumbeat of foreign policy crisis, disaster, and faux pas. But the kids back then “got it.”

There is no reason why at least a very large minority of them and the “independents” in the Middle Muddle (who are mostly moderate Democrats in their views, but they just don’t want to attach to a party affiliation)cannot peel away from Obonga and vote for a quality Republican candidate in 2012.

And based upon what I’m seeing, I think the Republicans can make very solid gains in both houses in 2010. They won’t win back the majority, but they’ll make the Democrat majority a lot slimmer. And then, hopefully, over the hump in 2012.

68 Bret: I understand your anguish. Read Caroline Glick’s latest article in the Jerusalem Post (online). She suggests that given the upheaval in America, Israel should begin to forge alliances with with countries like Japan and India and the Czech Republic. You might want to encourage your government to do likewise. It seems that for at least the next 4 years, the federal government in America is going to be FUBAR. I fear that you Aussies will have to consider other alternatives in the fight against Islamic fanatics and Stalinist rogues.

Re 74: You have hit the nail on the head. I’ll just add that 25 plus years of MTV, Madonna, and Gramsci-in-the-schools aided by Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds will insure a perpetual adolescence, if not outright dementia. …Oh, let’s not forget Sesame Street, that PBS pabulum of yore.

Thank you. I’m kind of getting used to the ‘flack’ I get here and it’s almost comical in a sense.
~
86. elvis,

Interesting link! I hadn’t caught the ‘pizza’ thing before. Nice! Our leetle hot house flour is sure living high on the hog eh?
-
Here’s another link juxtaposing how 0bama bowed to the Queen of England compared to his bow to the Saudi monarch:

Delia, others: Near as I can tell, the bow was in fact instinctive. I would say that is because BHO wishes he was as powerful as he thinks the Saudi King is.

It is the same type of body language that a Little Leaguer would have if he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Babe Ruth.

In contrast, Dubya’s hand-holding was almost assuredly done at the insistence of the Saudi. It was his way of telling the KSA, and the rest of Arabia as well, that “this here infidel is my
bud. Don’t you’all mess with him none now.
Ya’hear? His Pappy went and kicked Saddam out of Kuwait and he went one better by kicking Saddam out of Iraq. Feller like that, we are gonna keep on the good side of. Better for bidness that a-way.”

I beg leave to disagree: Bowing is far from the worst thing a president can do! But ignoring a genocidal holocaust comes close:

The Forgotten Armenian Genocide

It began April 24th, 1915 and continued until 1917. When it was over, a million and a half Armenians were gone, dead, murdered by Turkish forces for one simple, sick reason: They were Armenians and Christians. Approximately fifty percent of a people were all but exterminated because the Ottoman Turks wanted to purify their land by ridding it of those they considered Christian “vermin.”

To this day, Turkey is an Armenian-genocide-denier, comparable to Jewish Holocaust-deniers but absent the stigma assigned to those who refuse to concede that the atrocities committed by Hitler’s Nazis actually occurred. Almost worse, and despite voluminous evidence to the contrary, America and the rest of the world seem to have accepted the official prevarications of the Turkish government that the Armenian genocide either never happened or was the consequence of a civil war.

The extensive documentation of the atrocity committed by Turks against the Armenians, the continuing Turkish denial, and the fact that the Armenian genocide of almost a century ago was a prototype for subsequent genocidal events, all were subjects of a 2005 Danish conference: http://www.diis.dk/sw11640.asp

Apparently, President Obama’s advisors failed to provide him with a briefing on those events prior to his recent visit to Turkey where he never deigned to raise the issue, never asked, never demanded, that the Turks finally admit their horrendous history. That disgraceful, politically-correct omission was motivated by Turkey’s strategic importance, its predominantly Muslim population which Obama dared not offend, and a craven lack of moral will to exert pressure on a nominal ally.

If those who are blissfully ignorant of the past are destined to repeat it, American presidents who intentionally disregard history’s atrocities are destined to encourage more of the same.

Adolph Hitler knew very well what the Turks had done twenty years earlier, and gotten away with. He adopted as his templates many of their rationales and actions to effect his Great Solution for the “Jewish problem.”

To Hitler, the Jews also were vermin and he too wanted to cleanse the Motherland, as well as the rest of the planet, of all traces of their influence and presence through his infamous policy of “Judenrein.” Based on world inaction and lack of reaction to how Turkey handled their “Armenian problem,” he seems to have believed that no one would give much of a damn.

He’s one of the deceived. He fell for the “hope” that Obama would decriminalize marijuana. He’s now in denial. He tries to numb the pain of being “had” by lashing out at those who were not mesmerized by the “golden calf”.

Although, in his defense, he is only one of a very large block of Obama voters who fell for this ruse. After Obama insulted his online audience (the one that got him elected) during his town hall meeting (before he went to Europe and insulted his country) a door was left wide open for the right to crush him in the next election.

If the right had the fortitude to lift the prohibition on marijuana and pledge that a reasonable percentage of the taxes on the legal sale of marijuana would go towards environmental (green for green) and social causes, a huge voting block would leave the left.

As for the people on the right who find this offensive, it may take a little convincing as to why this is a road worth traveling. A quick history lesson may help. What rid America of the previous group of Chicago gangsters in power? The lifting of the prohibition on alcohol (those of you who answered Robert Stack have only dated yourself). If presented in the light that this is not unprecedented, has the potential to heal wounds, take money out of criminal hands, create a spike in tourism, piss off America’s enemies, and, once again, get the Chicago gangsters out of Washington, it may have a chance. Marijuana is not the boogeyman.

Americans are being pitted against each other (and it does not appear to be unintentional) and even someone such as David S. must be able to do the math and see where all these expenditures will take America. If he can’t, well, he should attend a tea party, not to counter-protest, but to actually meet the people in attendance. He may find that they are not the “boogeyman”, but merely Americans who support liberty and freedom. Losing your liberty and freedom, well that’d be a real “bummer” man. Once gone, it will be sorely missed, and incredibly difficult to get back. If not impossible.

Obamessiah has been betraying this country and the American people since the moment he took office. What amazes me is the ham-handed explanation a White House aide made in trying to whitewash Obamessiah’s obvious breach of protocol. American Presidents, throughout the entire 200+ year history of our existence, DO NOT BOW. Not only is Obamessiah not ready for prime time, but he is not even close.

“You know when that will be a problem? When Obama starts giving the Saudi’s nuclear weapons or releasing national secrets.”

But that’s the whole point. Don’t you realise that the same man who so willingly bends and bows to the Saudis (yet who does not behave this way normally, as the queen anecdote proves) may well be prone to giving Saudis nuclear weapons and releasing national secrets? In other words, while the bow itself may be harmless, symbolically, it shows that Obama may be willing to bend over backwards (pun intended) to please his Wahabi overlords, who he probably learned to venerate from his Indonesian madrasa days.

Dreamin there is NO reason to believe that because he bowed he would do anything to put the USA in danger by releasing national secrets. Linking the two together is so far fetched you might as well tell me the distance between L.A and NYC is 20 feet.

I love reading this blog. It gives me a view point that I appreciate and cherish. I learn a lot from this place. However this blog also allows me to see the dogmatism, ignorance, and militancy of so many people.

I am NOT a supporter of Obama. I want to make that clear. I am not a Democrat nor a liberal. I am neither a Republican nor a conservative. I am open to all ideas and I judge them all on the basis of their worth.

The amount of hatred, and that is what this is, for Obama and criticizing everything and anything he does by the readers and the blog is in my opinion an embarrassment. Obama has screwed up a lot. Obama has done a lot of bad things. I neither deny that nor try to cover it up.

HOWEVER the amount of militancy here is too much. Trying to link a bow, and please do not say he groveled or completely stretched himself out on the floor, to Obama releasing national secrets only shows that people are so militant and anti-Obama to such a degree that they will blow the smallest thing the president does out of proportions.

I understand the position that a lot of the readers are taking. Obama has been given a free pass multiple times by the media. He has messed up on different issues and he could definitely have done things better. I openly admit that.

However some of the comments I read here just frustrate me to no end. I read comments that say that ALL Democrats are racists, that Obama is a Muslim, that all the left does is deny,is Judeo-Christian America on the road to “submission” too referring to Obama’s bow, etc.

These kind of comments are riddled with SO much ignorance and twisting of the truth that is annoys me to no end. I read liberal blogs and I see the same crap there. You have to understand that on a daily basis I read comments from both sides of the spectrum that just twist the others position to no end.

Like for example. I read a comment that responded to this very article. It said that all the left does is deny. REALLY? You as a thinking, breathing, and conscious person going to seriously tell me that all the ENTIRE left spectrum does is deny? Do not be alarmed, because I read the exact same comment from a liberal blog that says all the right does is deny as well.

The point is when people start throwing these absolutist statements out I get annoyed. I never said that you should agree with the opposing position or that you should be nice when talking about it, BUT there is a difference between not agreeing with a position and then stating that everyone who holds that position is a racist or can only deny the truth.

I wonder if Raymond Ibrahim can enlighten me. I have heard that “negro” translates literally to “slave” in Arabic. Is this so?

Those commenting here who believe that this president is a one-termer are kidding themselves. Incumbents are difficult to unseat.

Moreover, Obama will be remembered as a great president. The same journalists and academics who shielded him from scrutiny and assured his election will see to his legacy. Barak Hussein Obama will be affirmative actioned into history. There will be statues, streets, airports,universities, mountains and rivers named after him.

I don’t agree with those who think obama insulted America and the memory of the founding fathers by groveling before a Muslim tyrant out of covert religious loyalty. Obama is an airhead socialist and, in any case, the line between Christianity and Islam among African Americans is very fuzzy. Deep thinkers are few and far between in the Black community.

By all accounts and to all appearances, Obama is a studied and controlled personality. I believe that his dissing of the British and his bowing and scraping before the Saudis were entirely intentional. Like his evil-minded, foul-mouthed reverend of twenty years, Obama has grown accustomed to preaching to the choir. This shallow, inexplicably self-confident naif imagined that his sucking up to our enemies and pissing on our friends would meet with our approval.

that is a good point. the prez is dangerous just because he is inexperienced and it is throwing alot of people off balance. he is doing a lot of projecting, about being arrogant and dismissive we are just asking who the f’ is he talking to and about. it is a big deal because he represents the USA, and just like those unorthodox fighters who make a quick name for themselves and when they come up against the real deal we find the ring announcer calling the the seconds of the round when he gets knocked the f’ out. this is my America this bozo is handling.

There is not way to spin this. The President of the United States of America; our President, is bowing and prostrating himself on bended knee before a Muslim King. Period. End of story. Repulsive, just simply repulsive. I hope that whoever decides to run in 2012 has millions of picture of our President on bended knee before a Muslim King to spread around prior to the election. Reeee Pullll siveeee

“It’s this simple folks, conservatives believe their own eyes, liberal lemmings believe what they are told they saw”

That would be hilarious if it weren’t so scarily true.

@56 Marge: “Well I think kissing and hugging and holding hands with another man,,,,,,by a guy who is straight,,,,,,,is worst. Didn’t bush do that.”

Did you read ANY of the article or comments? What Bush did, while seeming strange to us, was exactly appropriate according to Saudi customs.

The US bows to no one. Period. We are a free people. Beyond that, the White House has an entire protocol division. It’s there for a reason:protocol is important. O and his wifey just think they are better than everyone, and have no need to learn it. I do find it very disturbing that his impulse was to bow here, though. Very disturbing.

We Jews celebrate Purim every year for the last 2500 years. The Pur was the chance day where the edict to annihilate the Jews in the Persian Kingdom was enacted by Haman, the King’s vizier. And why was the Haman so incesnsed? Because the Jew Mordchai who was the official interpreter did not bow to Haman. The Pur was upended and Haman was strung up, but that is not the issue. Jews bow to God only, humans are all equal. Obama is obviously not a Jew.

This a really good article (I’d expect nothing less from Raymond Ibrahim!) and I see there are already many excellent comments and responses (I was travelling so couldn’t post to this page earlier).

I’d just like to add a couple of further thoughts that people may find also of interest. Firstly there was also a good article a few days ago about this on http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/07/barack-takes-a-bow (to which I wrote quite a few comments, on pages 4, 5, 6 and 7). It makes a number of additional points including stating that no only was this bow an “extraordinary protocol violation” but it goes on to say that “No Americans of any station are required to bow to royalty. It is one of the pillars of American exceptionalism that our country rejected traditional caste divisions. Article I Section 9 of the Constitution forbids titles of nobility and stipulates that no officeholder or government employee may ‘accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state” without the consent of Congress’. Clearly therefore Obama is very much going against not only protocol but the grain and intention of the Constitution (which he has sworn to respect and uphold).

The article in The Washington Times also (correctly) said “Mr. Obama is proving that one can be elected president without knowing how to behave presidentially” and I commented that Mr Obama is also proving that one can be elected president without most people having the least idea of one’s true agenda, values or loyalties!

I completely agree with Raymond that the Saudi King was clearly expecting to shake hands with the president of “the great Satan” NOT witness him prostrating himself in weak and submissive (and appropriately slave-like way, the King would probably think, given that Obama is 1/2 black). This bow could end up have more long term significance for the Arab World than when Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw a shoe at Mr Bush last December….!

By the way there’s a good comparative movie clip on YouTube showing both Obama’s deep and submissive bow to the Muslim King (followed by a long and adoring gaze) contrasted with his casual and unimportant nod at the Queen of England (before hastily moving on to chat with other – male – people in the room). Please do see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gJtIss7xso

I want to point out here that bowing to another human being is completely forbidden in Islam. So from a muslim’s perspective Obama’s bow was an extreme expression of submissiveness. It is not a protocol in either Saudi Arabia or any other muslim country, so leftists’ ‘protocol’ excuse is just a lie.

To a.m. mallett’s post, i say MAGNIFICO! COULDNT’VE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF–the only thing I might add is that the Pelosi-Reid monster combo, along with “Rambo Rahn,” should be added to the obammunist, & ALL should be “sent packing”, to Nevada & California, respectively,etc.
And what of the obamanation’s love affair with death, vis-a-vis his pushing of F.O.C.A. on unborns ; in effect, he’s put out a fatwa on all preborn babies through the incipient imposition of this Nazi-style decree. And will congress do anything to stop this, or will it be B.A.U., split along party lines? Or will he issue an “EXECUTIONIVE” order, bypassing every restraint?
Finally, I heartily concur with Mallett’s final statement: Let’s “IMPEACH THE BASTARD!”—God luv ya—MARKRITE

He bowed down to evil, and there is no other explanation. I do not consider a man who bows to Muslims my President. The “Leftarded” can keep him, and that is a cool new word to call the mentally challenged brain damaged followers of the left.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;”

I don’t see the fuss. Obama is just warming up to his new friends. Let’s count them all:
King of Saudi Arabia
Ahmadenajad of Iran
Chavez of Venezuela
Castro of Cuba
the Leader of Hamas
the good Taliban of Pakistan

Isn’t friendship a wonderful thing? Can anyone think of some other new friends our President has got?

Folks, now that our President is friends with these folks, you can also count them as your friends. Feel free to hold their hands, invite them over to dinner, or your next party.

“Instinctual… slavish” I wonder if this bow might have something to do with the fact that Arabs have long been the main enslavers of black Africans. Obama may simply have instinctually reacted as his slave ancestors in Kenya might have to their Arab slavemasters, and he bowed.

In his recent trip to London for G20 summit, President Obama was reaching out to shake the hand of King Abdullah, one of the leading men of terror in our current life. Saudi Arabia is a hub for terrorism. Seventeen terrorists out of nineteen terrorists on the 11 September 2001 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, supposedly our friend and ally. Here is the travesty, the most powerful man on earth bends over and bows deeply to Saudis’ King Abdullah, who is well known for his support of Wahhabi Islamism all over the world. Go figure! After All, Saudi Arabia is a place where Prophet Muhammad was born and it is where he unleashed his dogma of Islamic terrorism, the Quran.

Quran 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”

Quran 33:26 “Allah made the Jews leave their homes by terrorizing them so that you killed some and made many captive. And He made you inherit their lands, their homes, and their wealth. He gave you a country you had not traversed before.”

All of YOUR nonsense is further proof that you haven’t studied Islam or other cultures and have no clue as to how certain gestures to YOU might have no meaning but to Islamists those same gestures have big meaning to THEM.

Do yourself a huge favor and read a little more before you make your idiotic comments.

“Instinctual… slavish” . . (SouthernWolf). ..It is my understanding that ancestors were NOT African slaves; but rather the Arab ‘slave traders’. He is more ‘Arab’ than African. Seems he had few friends and fewer – if any – ‘authentic’ American Blacks while in shool here; rather; his assosciations were with students from Pakistan and ME et al. Michelle’ history; otoh. . .seems to fill out Obama’s victim – Christian – and African-American narrative.

Without Michelle; or ‘a’ Michelle; do not think Obama could not have morphed into America’s first ‘black’ – or first, African/American President. (His African heritage is as confused as are his ‘American’ credentials. . .) Have wondered if Obama’s ‘protocols’ to the women he met along his Diplomatic visitations were not designed, so as to NOT upset any Islamist onlookers. Beyond the disasterous, reverential ‘bow’. . .(made on behalf of every American yet!)it is almost as if he was observing ‘another’ protocol here; rather than that of an American President. (attributed Obama’s missteps with Carla Bruni/Sarkozy as a man listening to the warnings of a jealous wife. . .but in full context here; am rethinking Obama’s motives).

You Americans will see how Obama will betray you, this man has no allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, nor the great history of the USA, and you have your democrats to thank for that….but as always the USA will learn the hard way…..